Hong Kong Ordinances

MAGISTRATES ORDINANCE - SECT 37

Reduction of imprisonment on part payment of fine

(1) Subject to the provisions of subsections (2) and (3), where a term of
imprisonment is imposed by a magistrate in respect of the non-payment of any
sum of money adjudged to be paid by a conviction or order, that term shall, on
payment of a part of such sum to any person authorized by a magistrate to
receive it, be reduced by a number of days bearing as nearly as possible the
same proportion to the total number of days in the term as the sum paid bears
to the sum adjudged to be paid.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), in reckoning the number
of days by which any term of imprisonment would be reduced under this section,
the first day of imprisonment shall not be taken into account, and in
reckoning the sum which will secure the reduction of a term of imprisonment,
fractions of a cent shall be omitted. (Replaced 30 of 1958 s. 6)

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), where any person who has
been sentenced to imprisonment in default of payment of a sum of money
adjudged to be paid by a conviction or order earns under the Prison Rules (
Cap 234 sub. leg.) any remission of the sentence, the term of his imprisonment
shall for the purposes of subsection (1) be deemed, at any given time, to have
been reduced by such period of remission as may at the time stand to his
credit. [cf. 1914 c . 58 s. 3 (1) U.K.]